Michael D. Bopp

Michael Bopp is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is Chair of the Public Policy Practice Group and a member of the Firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations and Crisis Management Practice Groups, where he chairs the firms Congressional Investigations Subgroup. He also chairs the firm’s Financial Markets Crisis Group, a multi-disciplinary group formed to address client concerns stemming from the credit and capital markets crisis. Mr. Bopp’s practice focuses on congressional, internal corporate, and other government investigations, public policy consulting in a variety of fields, and managing and responding to major crises involving multiple government agencies and branches.

Congressional and Other Investigations

Mr. Bopp has led or played a major role in major investigations in both the Senate and House of Representatives, including four special investigations. In these capacities, he has developed the strategy and set the agenda for numerous investigations, conducted more than 100 depositions or witness interviews, managed dozens of subpoenas and massive document discovery efforts, and orchestrated more than 100 committee hearings. He has extensive knowledge of both legislative and regulatory processes, as well as of the powers and authorities of Congressional committees. His contacts are extensive and strong in both Republican and Democratic circles.

Since joining Gibson, Dunn in 2008, Mr. Bopp has defended clients in numerous Congressional investigations and has prepared CEOs and other top executives for committee hearings, depositions, and interviews. Mr. Bopp’s engagements include representing companies and individuals in the following congressional investigations:

Representation of a Big 4 accounting firm in an investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into alleged offshore tax evasion. This investigation culminated in a hearing at which our client successfully defended its actions resulting in no follow-up by the Subcommittee and avoiding negative press coverage and reputational damage;

Represented Goldman Sachs in the investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into causes of the financial markets crisis;

Represented Chairman Spencer Bachus in the Office of Congressional Ethics’ and House Ethics Committee’s inquiries into alleged insider trading. The Office of Congressional Ethics has recommended that the allegations concerning Chairman Bachus be dismissed;

Representing Cigna in the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Commerce Committees’ investigations of the health insurance industry;

Representing LightSquared in multiple congressional investigations relating to the company’s interactions with the Federal Communications Commission;

House Science and Technology Committee’s investigation of satellite procurement issues;

Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan’s investigation of services contracts; and

Multiple investigations by House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct and Office of Congressional Ethics.

Policy Experience

Mr. Bopp engages in high-level, strategic policy and related regulatory work on a variety of issues. His clients have included General Electric Company, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, Ticketmaster, Microsoft, Fairfax Financial, Goldman Sachs, General Dynamics, and LightSquared.

Mr. Bopp has focused significantly over the past three years on the financial markets crisis and financial regulatory reform issues. He has helped numerous clients navigate through the crisis, often with assistance from the government, work with Congress and the Administration on regulatory reform legislation, and shape and prepare for new regulatory requirements promulgated as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Among his many successes is helping to create and run the Coalition for Derivatives End-Users, which has roughly 300 active company and trade association members. The Coalition works on both legislative and regulatory fronts to help protect interests of end-user companies in the debate over appropriate regulation of derivatives and has been a highly-successful participant in these processes.

As a result of this work, Mr.Bopp has been named one of the 100 most influential people in finance by Treasury and Risk magazine.

Mr. Bopp also has been closely involved in homeland security issues since he helped write the legislation creating the Department. His involvement continues through his work with clients who have business with DHS and through his appointment as a Senior Fellow to George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute.

From 2006-2008, Mr. Bopp served as Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, and was responsible for overseeing budgets and coordinating regulatory, legislative, and other policy for approximately $150 billion worth of spending for various government agencies, including the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security, Transportation, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce, the General Services Administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

From 2003 to 2006, he served as Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the Committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, one of the Senate’s largest committees and most expansive in terms of jurisdiction. He oversaw more than 100 hearings, led numerous investigations and was a primary drafter of key legislation, including the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the most significant reform of the intelligence community in more than 50 years, and 2006 legislation strengthening port security and overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He also directed a 50-person investigation of the failure of preparations and response to Hurricane Katrina. The investigation included 22 hearings, 325 witnesses, more than 800,000 pages of documents and an 800 page report.

Mr. Bopp served as Legislative Director and General Counsel to Senator Susan Collins of Maine from 1999 to 2003. He was Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1998 to 1999, where he investigated alleged improper activities undertaken by Teamsters’ officials. Before that, he worked on the Congressional investigation of campaign finance abuses as senior investigative counsel to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight and as counsel for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. He also previously served as counsel on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Mr. Bopp served as outside general counsel to the campaign to re-elect Senator Susan Collins.

Mr. Bopp received his law degree cum laude in 1992 from Harvard Law School where he was Articles Editor on the Journal of Law and Public Policy. He graduated magna cum laude, with honors, in public policy from Brown University in 1987.